“Excuse me, Miss Ava, where is my kiss?” Sam bent down and pointed to her cheek, smiling at the little girl. Ava’s pout disappeared as she ran to her aunt, and threw her arms around her neck. Jake looked at Ava baffled, he had done everything she asked, and she looked like she was the one in pain. “Aunt Sam! Thank God! Grandpa and Uncle Jake don’t know how to play tea party right.”
Jake frowned. “Hey, kiddo. I wore the crown!” He said as he pointed to the glittering thing on top of his head, no doubt ruining his hair that took him a half hour to do. “That’s more than, Grandpa did.”
“Jake, zip it. It didn’t fit me. And I got stuck wearing the feather thing, instead!” Joe grunted.
“Feather thing?” Sam looked up at their mom, for answers.
Deb rolled her eyes. “He wore a feather boa for two minutes before he spilled sauce on it.”
Jake chuckled, his father tried so hard not to curse when that had happened. Cara covered her mouth with her hand to hide her laughter. Sam looked back at their father, who had his arms crossed against his chest, sulking. She smiled at him and winked. “You tried, dad.” She said softly, standing up. Jake mused, that’s one thing about his sister, she always had their father’s back, talk about daddy’s little girl. She took Ava’s hand in hers, leading her towards the tea party table.
“Cara will you play tea party with me and Aunt Sam?” The little girl asked hopefully.
Jake placed his hands on Cara’s shoulders and gave her a slight push. He began to speak over her shoulder to Ava. “Cara would love to! In fact,” he took the tiara off his head and placed it on Cara’s head. “She’s been looking forward to it all day.”
Cara raised an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder at him, then straightened the tiara on her head. “I’d love to play tea party.”
“Yay!” Exclaimed Ava.
Jake watched them file out of the kitchen into the living room, perfect time to escape and smoke a much needed cigarette he figured, and excused himself, giving his parents free reign to kill each other over what Joe could or could not eat.
Jake sat down on one of the Adirondack chairs his parents kept on their front porch. He lit his cigarette and propped his feet on the white railing that wrapped around the house. As he leaned back against the chair, he felt exhaustion overcome him. It was nothing new. Lately he had been constantly battling fatigue; he just hoped it wasn’t mono again. That would really ruin his social life.
That wasn’t the only thing ruining his social life, he admitted to himself. Lately he couldn’t shake Cara from his mind. He couldn’t figure out what had changed, or why she was constantly on his mind. But lately, he found himself rushing through his dates with Joanna, to see Cara. He noticed it the other night, when he took Joanna bowling, and he felt himself wishing he was with Cara, remembering how competitive she was at the game. It made it more fun for him because he would tease her, and keep the bumpers on for himself, half the time she never caught on because she was too enthralled with finding the perfect angle to get a strike.
It seemed like every minute he wasn’t with her, he was thinking of her, or counting the minutes until he’d see her. He didn’t know where this was coming from, but he told himself he needed to get a grip on this shit, before it backfired in his face. He grabbed the ashtray that sat on the little table between the two chairs and put his cigarette out, just as Luke’s truck pulled into the driveway. He watched his brother and Nick get out of the truck and make, their way towards him. “Finally, now maybe mom will let us eat.” Jake said, rubbing his hand across his growling stomach.
Luke laughed, “Sounds like mom. I bet dad, isn’t too happy.”
Jake’s eyes widened in exaggeration, “Are you kidding me? This dinner may be the end of Deb and Joe as we know it, if she doesn’t give that man something to eat, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“Is everybody here?” Nick asked as he shoved one hand casually into his pocket.
Jake looked at him and gave him a knowing stare, patting him on the back. “Yes, lover boy. Sam is here.” Then it struck Jake, if Nick and Sam got together, he’d have nothing to tease them about. He made a mental note, realizing he should back off a little.
Luke opened the door and immediately called out to his daughter. “Ava! Daddy’s here!”
He glanced behind him and Nick looked stuck standing at the threshold of the house. “What are your feet stuck?”
Jake raised one eyebrow, from behind Nick, at his brother. He waited for the slight nod, and Luke gave him the go ahead. Jake lifted his knee and kicked Nick in the ass. Snapping out of his trance, he stumbled over the door jamb, catching himself before he tripped.
“You know I can still kick both your asses without blinking an eye.” He scowled between the two brothers that were too amused to fear the threat.